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History of Craigencalt Booklet 12-05-2016

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History of Craigencalt Booklet 12-05-2016 History of Craigencalt at Kinghorn Loch CRAIGENCALT RURAL COMMUNITY TRUST 1 www.CraigencaltTrust.org.uk CRCT ISBN 978-0-9931918-1-7 Published by Craigencalt Rural Community Trust Copyright © Craigencalt Rural Community Trust 2016 www.CraigencaltTrust.org.uk Title: The History of Craigencalt at Kinghorn Loch By: Marilyn Edwards Photographs: Courtesy of ascribed references, Burntisland Heritage Trust and CRCT. Funding: Fife Environment Trust, Awards for All Scotland and CRCT. Further copies of this booklet Cover picture: and other publications can be obtained from CRCT: Artistic impression (courtesy of Ron Edwards) of Craigencalt 71 Kirkbank Road, Burntisland, Mill in the seventeenth and Fife, KY3 9JA or company eighteenth century. This mill address on website. was replaced around 1790 but the building remains. [email protected] Contents Foreword: Setting the scene. i 1: Formation of Kinghorn Loch. 1 2: Pre-historic and Early times. 3 3: Medieval Times – Evidence of the first mill at Craigencalt. 6 4: The First Watermill 9 5: The Leslie family buys the lands of Craigencalt. 11 6: Lands of Craigencalt pass to Raith Estate. 14 7: The Young Family Connection - A New Watermill. 21 8: The Robert Philp Educational Trust takes ownership. 31 9: Water Supply for Kinghorn 44 10: Changing Times 45 11: Banchory and Drinkbetween Farms 49 12: Kinghorn and Kinghorn Loch 53 References 55 Acknowledgments and postscript. 58 Foreword: Setting the scene. For such a tiny hamlet, Craigencalt has a long and fascinating history and much of the heritage is still there to see. Kinghorn Loch, an attractive and useful natural feature has served the peoples of the area throughout its whole existence. It was an unusual but fortunate act of nature that caused the surroundings to be so attractive, with the formation of Kinghorn Loch as a ’kettle hole lake’ at the end of the last glaciation of the present Ice Age. The loch will have been formed sometime between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago; the date is uncertain as there was a re-advance of the ice during this time. This was followed by a rapid warming of the climate. A rocky tundra with numerous lochans and the scattering of birch, alder and possibly pine woodland will have greeted the first hunter-gatherer stone age groups as they migrated across the land bridge from Europe into Britain. Slowly, nature and farmers will have cleared and cultivated the land but even in the nineteenth century much drainage work was still needed. From medieval times, its attractiveness as a site of a productive mill close to the coastal transport routes and as a water supply for Kinghorn has brought colourful and powerful landowners and philanthropists onto the scene, in partnership and in disagreement. Today the many visitors to Craigencalt and Kinghorn Loch can enjoy the countryside and water sports and can learn about all the twists and turns of these colourful people. i Craigencalt Farm showing development of the mill buildings and farm house. ? Corn mill extant at or before 1583 - position unknown. 1. Corn mill built well before 1682, used until around 1790. 2. Threshing mill built around 1790, used until around 1860. 3. Craigencalt Farmhouse, built 1891. ii 1: Formation of Kinghorn Loch. In the beginning there was only ice - for two and a half million years with hundreds of metres of ice over Kinghorn at its greatest thickness. This last glacial period of the present Ice Age came to an end only around 11,000 years ago, as we entered an inter-glacial period. Glaciers of the central Scotland ice sheet grind towards the North As the front of the central Scotland ice Sea ice sheet. sheet receded past Kinghorn a huge calf of ice broke away and was buried in moraine (rock and clay). When this huge block melted it left a hole in the landscape which became Kinghorn Loch. Such lochs are usually round and deep and are referred to as ‘Kettle Hole’ lakes. They are quite unusual. The landscape will have been rocky tundra with characteristic sharp rocky knolls with bog and lochans between. Soon, sparse birch and alder woodland followed, with pine and ultimately oak forest coming in. As the weight of ice was removed from the land, the land rebounded and continues to do so today. Initially the sea level rose by 45m through ice melt but then fell back as land rose. Britain was connected to Europe until around 8,500 The tundra would have shown a years ago when the land bridge to Britain landscape quite different from today. finally vanished beneath the sea. This will have been fertile land and hunter- Tundra photographs courtesy of gatherers will have already moved north Michael Kirsh into Scotland, moving further northwards with the retreating ice. 1 Kinghorn Loch. Kinghorn Loch is a roughly circular loch with a diameter of approximately 380 m. It is relatively deep, being 13.8 m at its greatest depth. A thermacline develops over the summer when upper waters can typically be 13-18°C while that below the thermacline can be 4°C. The thermacline may turn over in autumn and mixing occurs. The only significant inflow to the loch is the burn at Craigencalt Farm and residence time for water is typically eight months. Water in the burn is primarily derived from the Banchory Burn, the burn being diverted as a mill lade across the fields in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Reference: ‘Impact of a long-term caustic discharge from Red Mud disposal on a freshwater lake’, R.A.Edwards, PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh (1985) 2 2: Pre-historic and Early times. It is not by accident that people decide to live where they do, and the area around Kinghorn Loch has been an excellent place for habitation since the retreat of the last glaciers, when humans came and settled in Scotland. The basic requirements for living were in abundance here, a plentiful supply of fresh water with running springs to avoid stagnation, a good terrain, soil to grow some crops and woodland for hunting and providing fuel. This place had easy access to the coast for fishing and trading and its elevated position provided good look out points and expansive views across the Firth of Forth and inland. Evidence of the first Mesolithic people to settle here in the Caledonian forests as the glaciers receded, has been uncovered around the Firth of Forth. In November 2001, a small seasonal encampment was found at Crammond in Edinburgh, at the mouth of the River Almond. More recently, in November 2012 it was reported in The Scotsman 1 that, while builders were preparing the ground for the new Forth Road Bridge (Queensferry Crossing), evidence was discovered of a dwelling. The site is at Echline, near South Queensferry, and has been dated to around 10,000 years ago. The discovery comprises a large oval pit 7 metres in length which would have been a dwelling house, perhaps for one or more families. There is evidence of post holes, supported walls and a turf roof. Inside there were several hearths where charred shells and hazel © Transport Scotland/Headland Archaeology 3 nut kernels were found, suggesting that diet was good and varied. More than 1,000 flint artefacts were uncovered including several flint arrowheads. It is evident that the Echline community lived quite comfortably. The Picts were the first people to settle in the north and east of Scotland. We are still learning much about them through archaeological discoveries. They had farming and fishing skills and their lasting communication was by means of pictures and symbols carved on rocks. Further exciting evidence has been uncovered of Pictish people living in the vicinity of Kinghorn Loch. In July 2003, the Scotsman 2 reported that two amateur archaeologists, Colin Kilgour and Jock Moyes from Burntisland had discovered cup and ring and spiral design markings on boulders on the Binn Hill above Burntisland, only some 5 km from Kinghorn Loch. Historic Scotland confirmed that these were Neolithic Carving on The Binn © Ian Kilgour and about 4,000 years old. This find is about 3,000 years older than the well known Pictish carvings at Wemyss caves, further along the Fife coast. Although we do not have archaeological evidence that Pictish people settled at Kinghorn Loch itself, it is perfectly possible that they did. In my research there are various references to an early (post-Roman) battle that reportedly took place near Kinghorn between a combined force of Picts, Scots and Britons and an invading force of Angles who arrived in the Forth Estuary by boat. Physical evidence for such an encounter has never been established. However, in the year 596AD there is an account of the Battle of Raith or Catraeth (Cat being the Irish and Gaelic name for a battle) which may have taken place immediately to the west of Kirkcaldy. The battle was described in a poem by a Welsh bard called Hanerurin who was present at the fighting. The invaders 4 were Angles and King Aidan (King of the Scots of Dalriada, crowned by Saint Columba at Iona) and his nobles were defending. The fighting went on for over a week and the invaders eventually retreated but King Aidan suffered heavy losses. In The Celtic Review VII published in 1911 3 Mr E B W Nicholson, a Bodleian librarian in Oxford, wrote that a charge of 300 men took place down Raith hill by the west of the mill dam and along to the Tiel Burn. However there are several claims for the battle’s location in various places throughout Britain.
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